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The Impact of Cultural Differences on Interpreting Situations 141

assumes a short neutral or positive response. It is not an invita-
tion to expound on the terrible traffic or lack of available parking.
Similarly, the last query the interviewer often poses, “Do you have
any questions?” is not an open-ended request to satisfy one’s cu-
riosity about the company’s quirks or inquire about irrelevant top-
ics, but one last opportunity to sell oneself.
That job interviews are routinely conducted according to a set
of procedures not unlike those that govern football, checkers, or
Monopoly can be inferred from this quote from Interview for Suc-
cess:
Like it or not, employers play by these rules. Once you
know the rules, you at least can make a conscious choice
whether or not you want to play. If you decide to play,
you will stand a better chance of winning by using the
often unwritten rules to your advantage. (Krannich and
Krannich 95)

The Game Has Different Rules in Other Cultures
Naturally, the rules of job interviews vary in other cultures. In Ja-
pan, for example, interviewees are not supposed to brag about
themselves. When asked why they are applying for the position,
the appropriate response, after complimenting what the company
has given to society, is to state, “I hope I can humbly make my
contribution to this company.” As the saying goes in Japan, “An
able eagle hides its claws.”
Similarly, Yao Wei in his essay “The Importance of Being KEQI
[modest, humble]” describes Chinese immigrants’ difficulties with
the assertiveness required in American job interviews. When asked
to show his woodworking abilities at a job interview, an accom-
plished Chinese carpenter may downplay his talents by saying,
“How dare I be so indiscreet as to demonstrate my crude skills in
front of a master of the trade like you?” If the employer persists in
his request, the carpenter would probably respond: “If you really
insist, I’ll try to make a table. Please don’t laugh at my crude work.”
Finally the carpenter may put the final touches on a “beautiful
piece of art in the shape of a table” (Wei 1983, 72–74).
In the essay “Performance and Ethnic Style in Job Interviews,”
the authors, F. Niyi Akinnaso and Cheryl Seabrook Ajirotutu (1982),
describe the job interview “as an interrogative encounter between
someone who has the right or privilege to know and another in a

06 MINDESS PMKR 141 10/18/04, 12:01 PM